'We Used to Be Friends': Thoughts on the 'Veronica Mars' comeback

It's hard not to be captivated by the impending, Kickstarter-driven “Veronica Mars” movie. After all, raising more than $2 million in less than 24 hours is no mean feat, by any standard … and raising it from the fan base of a cult TV show that had less than spectacular ratings when it went off the air in 2007? That's astonishing.

But mostly, I've had the song's immensely catchy theme song, “We Used to Be Friends,” by the Dandy Warhols, stuck in my head ever since the news broke:

“A long time ago, we used to be friends,” sings frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor, “But I haven't thought of you lately at all.”

Obviously, creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell have been thinking about the show and its titular protagonist, the witty, recklessly brave and emotionally damaged teen detective, Veronica Mars. And obviously, enough people cared enough about the show, even after all this time, to throw them enough money to get the movie going when they asked. It helps, of course, that they asked in a highly entertaining fashion, with a hilarious video featuring stars Bell, Ryan Hansen, Jason Dohring and Enrico Colantoni.

It also didn't hurt that Warner Brothers, which controls the show's film rights, is letting them get away with it. Of course, they have less to lose this way, so it's in the company's interests, but still. They could have just said “no.” Film studios have a notorious history of doing just that. Indeed, they could have bided their time a few more years, and relaunched the franchise with a new cast and creative team, as was attempted not that long ago with another cult favorite (and clear influence on “Veronica Mars”), “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

But then, when word got out that Kuzui and Kuzui Enterprises, the company that owns the “Buffy” film rights, was going to make the film without creator Joss Whedon, actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played the character in the TV show, or any of the characters created for the TV show (which are all owned by Fox), there was a staggering fan outcry. The idea faded remarkably quickly.

There's a cultural disconnect between the ideas of who legally has the right to tell a story, and whom audience gives permission to tell a story. It goes a bit deeper than simple copyright. The “Veronica Mars” film is being greeted with cheers because the people the audience feel have the right to tell that story — Thomas, Bell, et al. — are involved. The right to tell a story is a two-sided equation, and the story's audience — at least to a certain degree — has a voice. It's the audience that empowers the storyteller.

That dynamic's not a static thing, though. The copyright to Sherlock Holmes, the 19th century's archetypical great detective, has drifted into a legal netherworld, where the character is both in and out of the public domain. This hasn't stopped myriad storytellers from telling Sherlock Holmes stories, though — the TV shows Sherlock and Elementary, for example, or more obliquely in stories by Michael Chabon and Neil Gaiman. But legal claims by the Doyle estate aside, it seems the public will accept just about any writer's right to create a Sherlock Holmes story. Right now, the iconic superhero Superman is — to the public's eye, at least — clearly the domain of DC Comics, who legally owns the characters, and Warner Brothers, who legally owns DC. But the heirs to Superman's co-creator, Jerry Siegel, have constantly had DC in court over the rights to the character, which begs the question: What would happen if they won? Would the character's fan base accept Superman stories that were divorced from the DC Comics universe? (Most likely, DC would just end up licensing him back, at an exorbitant fee.)

One would think that, aside from the legal niceties, no one actually cares who tells a Superman story. Easily hundreds of writers have already done so, after all. But tell that to novelist Orson Scott Card, who was contracted by DC to write a Superman story and was blasted by Superman fans for his outspoken conservative views, particularly his negative view of homosexuality. And now it appears that story will likely never happen. The audience is the other side of the creative equation. They don't have the entire say as to who gets to write a story, but they have some.

Someday, presumably, we'll get to the point where the adventures of Veronica Mars or Buffy the Vampire Slayer will pass to new creative hands. In the meantime, we have a fan-funded “Veronica Mars” movie with all the stars we associate with the story, and the creator whose story it is to tell. And frankly, one can't help but feel that the process of asking the audience for help might actually have given the film a bigger boost than if a studio had just relented and funded the movie. Because now there's a sense of audience ownership. It was always a cult TV show, but now that cult is invested. It'll be curious to see if that makes a difference in how the film's received.

And if nothing else, I hope they use the theme song. Like the show itself, it's a welcome old friend. (Victor D. Infante)

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